Merci Marie

Saurday night it ended up being just Ingrid and I going to the Fete des Lumières. Chloé, Justine, and Olivia couldnt make it/ had seen it too many times before for it to be exciting. So, we took the metro to Place Bellecour and walked around. The holiday is really on the 8th of December, but it has become a more commercial holiday in past years, so people generally start celebrating the weekend before the 8th. There were a lot of stands a Place Bellecour selling small glow in the dark objects. Also a lot of stands selling kebabs, hot dogs, tacos, crepes, waffles, cotton candy, and warm wine. I ate a sugar crepe, my first in France!:) We walked down Rue République and into some smallar side streets to see the abstract lights people had put up for display. Some were just spiraled colored lights hanging from trees, and others were lights in the shapes of trees all in a bunch, etc. Some of the streets were so packed with people it took us half an hour to walk one block! We got out of the crowd and walked down the Saone river to Vieux Lyon where we watched a movie that was being projected on to the Church of Saint-Jean. The movie was about the construction of the church, and showed someone drawing the plan for the church, then people constucting it, sort of the history behind it. Then we watched a man drink alcohol and blow on a stick of fire which then flared up, which was not very impressive, but the heat from the fire was nice:) Then he started swinging fire balls around which was more interesting. We finally caught the metro home with a boy from our class, Alexys, at about 11:30pm.
Sunday I went to the mall with Laurie and her friend Elise. And then Sunday night I went to see the fireworks with Claire which were set off behind the Fourvière Basilica. They were pretty, and I tried to capture in on camera, but the really bright ones just show up as white blobs on the screen. For dinner that night we ate snails that were left over from a party Michel and Claire had hosted the night before.
Monday was pretty normal. Though for dinner I ate calf tongue..
Tuesday morning Michel left for Groix. Groix is a small island (5.72 square miles!) in N-W France. Michel and Claire have a small house there, and will be going there after Chrismas to celebrate the New Year. I guess there is a little bit of house work that needs to be done before they go up for New Years. Tuesday was also the actual Fete des Lumières. On the way home from school, we could already see people putting up candles in their windows. The history behind this celebration started in 1643 when the plague hit France, though Marie (mother of Jesus) saved the town from becoming infected and to thank her, all the residents put up luminons (candles) in their windows. One church is also illuminated in different colors with a big neon sign that says 'Merci Marie' next to it. Tuesday night, Aliane (I am still not sure how to spell her name, though she is the godmother of Victor, I think) came over for dinner and we lit about 50 candles and put them up in windows all over the house.
Wednesday I had school, then dance. Pretty normal, though I did study 8 pages of notes for a biology test I had today. It went pretty well I thought, though I didnt write more than a page during the entire hour.
Today I met an Australian exchange student who is going to stay with Chloé for 6 weeks named Claire.
Tomorrow (Friday) is usually my bussiest day of the week, starting from 8 until 6 with only a half an hour break for lunch. However this particular Friday I am only going to have 3 hours of school!!! From 8-10 am and then from 4-5 pm. This is happening because my chemistry/physics teaching is going to be absent, and we dont have TPE (prep class for the bac). However, on Saturday I have a four hour 'Bac Blanc' which is a practice test for the Bac de Francais I will take at the end of the year.